Milk bottle cover



Dec. 17, 1935.

A. SIMEONE MILK BOTTLE COVER Filed Dec.

Patented Dec. 17, 1 935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MILK BOTTLE COVER Adolph Simeone, Somerville, Mass, assignor to T. J. Edwards Inc., Boston, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts The present invention relates to closures, and more particularly to a combined cover, cap remover, and milk age indicator for use on milk bottles.

In the days before widespread household electric refrigeration, preventing milk from scoring was a problem constantly facing housewives. Ordinary icebox refrigeration had its limitations in that the temperature could never be below 32 -F., and in fact was generally a few degrees higher. As a consequence, milk could not be preserved sweet for much more than twenty-four hours.

Electric refrigeration has greatly changed this situation. Temperatures lower than those made by mere ice now generally prevail, and the time during which milk will remain sweet has been thereby lengthened to several days. It is now a common thing to find in electric refrigerators several milk bottles in different states of fullness and representing several degrees of age. But while the problem of souring has been largely solved, there still remains the desire to know which milk is fresh as compared with milk a day or more old, and this raises the problem of providing some means whereby a housewife may tell the ages of the different bottles of milk in her refrigerator.

Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide means for readily indicating the age of a given quantity of bottled milk. Broadly considered, merely dating the bottle cap itself or pasting a dated label on the bottle would serve the purpose, but such a procedure, simple as it is, is likely to come Within the nuisance class, and besides, there are advantages in combining a milk age indicating means with a combined bottle cover and cap remover. With such a device a housewife may easilyset the age indicator before she puts the milk away and then may have that indicator displayed prominentlybefore her whenever she takes up the bottle to use the milk. The present invention therefore proposes theprovision, in a combined bottle cover and cap remover provided with a cover member and a prong for piercing and retaining the cap so that it mayberemoved with the cover, of means, carried by the cover for indicating the ageof the milk in the bottle.

In theuse of such covers for milk bottles, it is desirable that 'thepaper cap should be restored to the bottle when itis replaced in'the refrigerator. The reason for this is that bottle covers, effective asthey maybe for mere coverage, can- .not make the air tight seal that is made by the usual paper cap in abutment with the shoulder and inner walls of the top of the bottle.

Accordingly, it is a further object of the present invention to provide a combined bottlecover and cap remover which, in addition to indicat- 5 ing the age of the milk, replaces the cap in the bottle in the proper position for sealing.

To the accomplishment of these objects and such others as may hereinafter appear, the features of the present invention reside in certain Fig. 2 is a view in plan of the cover;

Fig. 3 is a composite view comprising a .sec-' tional elevation of the cover taken along the line 33 of Fig. 2 and also a view in detail sectional elevationof the top portion of a milk bottle; and

Figs} is a view in sectional plan taken along the line l4 of Fig. 3.

The illustrated embodiment of the present invention is provided with a cover member 6 comprising a dished top portion I (Figs. 1, 2, and 3) surrounded by, a peripheral ring 8, and a circular depending skirt 9, preferably provided with a bead Iii so that it may be more easily grasped for use. The inner diameter of the skirt 9 is such that it fits tightly around the top H of a glass milk bottle if provided with the usual paper cap 40 [3 as shown in Fig. 1. The peripheral ring 8, as ind icated in Fig. 2, carries indicia M representing the seven days of the week.

Mounted on the dished portion 1 is a pointer I5 (Figs. 1, 2, and 3) the pointing end 16 of which is bent upwardly at an angle to conform to the angle of the side walls of the dished portion 1, as shown in Fig. 3. The pointing end l6 terminates close to the indicia [4 past which the pointer I5 is adapted to be moved. For thispur- 5O pose the pointer I5 may be rotatably mounted on its opposite end H at the center of the dished portion 1 by means of a rivet [8. To facilitate the manipulation of the pointer IE it ispreferably provided with a longitudinal ridge l9, as inof the circumferential material of the plate 2|, a

dicated in Figs. 2 and 3. The head of the rivet I8 presses against the end H of the pointer so that it is frictionally held in any position in which it is adjusted with relation to the indicia I4.

The end I! (Fig. 2) of the pointer I5, secured by the rivet I8, is flat, and is rounded and wider than the shank of the pointer so that the area of that portion of the end H which engages the dished surface 'I of the cover will be considerably greater than the area of that portion of the end I? which is engaged by the head of the rivet I8. The purpose of this construction will be explained hereinafter.

In order to remove the paper cap I3 from the milk bottle I2, the under surface of the dished portion I is provided with a'pointed prong 20 (Figs. 1, 3, and 4) adapted to pierce and retain the cap I3 so as to remove it when the cover 6 is lifted from the bottle. As shown in Fig. 4, the prong 20 is cut from, and forms an integral part of, a substantially circular plate 2I provided with a central aperture through which passes the shank of the rivet I8. The plate 2I is secured fast to the under surface of the dished portion 1 by upsetting the end of the rivet. By making the plate 2| substantially circular before the prong 20 is formed, the prong itself is arcuate and substantially concentric with the skirt 9, as indicated in Fig. 4. It will be apparent, viewing Fig. 3, that since the prong 26 is formed from less than second prong, identical with the prong 20, may be cut from the opposite side of the plate.

The prong 29, as shown in Fig. 3, comprises three portions, a downwardly bent portion 22 at the point of juncture with the plate 2|, a body portion 23 lying in a plane substantially parallel with the plate 2! and the dished surface "I, and a pointed end 24 preferably having a slight declination to facilitate the piercing of the cap I3 and the passage thereunder of the body portion 23 of the prong. The length of the downwardly bent portion 22 is such that the plane of the body portion 23 is spaced from the plate 2I a distance slightly greater than the thickness of the paper cap I3. This construction is shown in Figs. 1 and 3. As a practical matter, this difference between the thickness of the cap I3 and the spacing of the prong 20 from the plate 2I is compensated for by the upset end 25 of the rivet I8. As shown in Fig. 3, the top I I of an ordinary milk bottle is provided with an inner shoulder 26 against which, and against the vertical walls 21 formed thereby, the paper cap I3 abuts to form a seal.

Since this shoulder 26 lies below the uppermost portion of the bottle top II, the dishing of the top of the cover 3 extends far enough down so that when the cover is in proper position on the bottle I2, the upset end 25 of the rivet I8 will contact the cap I3 as shown in Fig. 1.

In using the illustrated embodiment of the present invention, the cover 6 is first placed over the top I I of the milk bottle I2 and is then pressed down with a slight clockwise rotary motion so that the pointed end 24 of the prong 20 pierces the paper cap I3. The rotation of the cover 6 clockwise around the top of the bottle is then continued with the result that the body portion 23 of the prong 20 passes along under the cap I3 until the pierced portion of the cap abuts the bent portion 22 of the prong. Since the prong 20 is arcuate and substantially concentric with the skirt 9, the cap I3 is not displaced or shifted by the prong in its passage through and under the cap. The cover 6 is then lifted bodily from the bottle I2, and since the cap I3 contacts the top of the body portion 23 of the prong 2B, which in effect supports the cap from below, the cap is retained by the prong and is removed with the removal of the cover.

The cap I3 is properly re-positioned by simply replacing the cover 6 on the top I I of the bottle. Since the dishing of the cover 6 corresponds to the depth of the shoulder 26 below the top of the bottle, when the cover 6 is replaced the upset end 25 of the rivet I8 forces the cap I3 into abutment with the shoulder 26. The original seal of the cap is thereby effected, and in addition, the cap aids in holding the cover in position on the bottle.

When it is desired to remove the cover 6 from the bottle without disturbing the cap I3 thereon, the cover is merely rotated counter clockwise, thereby causing the prong 20 to pass free and clear of the aperture point '24.

The pointer I 5 may be set with relation to the indicia I4 either before or after the cover 6 is applied to the bottle, and the movement of the pointer about the ring 8 is facilitated by the ridge I9. When a housewife purchases milk on a Monday, for example, she has merely to set the pointer to Mon. (Fig. 2). Since the pointer is held in position frictionally by the head of the rivet I8,

a mere handling of the bottle I2 does not dis- 6 was considerably greater than the area of sur-' face contact between the wide end I! and the head of the rivet I8. This is of practical importance when the pointer is set with relation to the indicia I4 before the cover is rotated on the bottle I2 to cause the prong 20 to pierce and pass under the cap I3. The upset end 25 of the rivet I8 holds the plate 2I fast against the cover 6 and thereby causes the plate and the prong to rotate with the cover when it is turned. If by chance the resistance of the cap I3 to piercing should tend to hold the prong stationary while the cover is rotated, the rivet I8 will remain stationary also, and the head of the rivet, pressing against the pointer I5, will thereby tend to hold the pointer stationary while the cover and its indicia I4 are moving. This undesirable result is prevented by the wide end I! of the pointer I5, for the relatively great frictional grip of this wide end I'I against the cover overcomes any resistance to movement offered by the relatively small frictional grip on the pointer by the head of the rivet I8. With this construction the pointer I5 always moves with the cover 6 and is never dislodged from the position in which it is set with relation to the indicia I4, and this is true regardless of whether the prong 20' and plate 2| move or remain stationary when the cover 6 is rotated clockwise on the bottle.

The greater size of the plate 2| as compared to the size of the head of the rivet I8, best shown in Fig. 3, is of practical importance when the pointer is set with relation'to the indicia I4 after the cover 6 is rotated on the bottle I2. The plate 2I offers greater frictional resistance against the under surface of the dished portion 1 than the pierced in the cap by the L iii I at) head of the rivet I8 offers against the pointer l5. With this construction, a turning of the pointer l does not serve to rotate the rivet l8. As a consequence, when the pointer I5 is rotated clockwise to set it, with the cover 6 in position on the bottle I2 as shown in Fig. l, the plate 2| and the prong 20 remain stationary and the cap [3 is not disturbed in any way in its position of sealing against the shoulder 26 and the walls 21. To the same end, the plate 2| and the prong 20 remain stationary when the pointer I5 is rotated counter clockwise to set it, so that this movement of the pointer does not serve to free the prong from the cap I3.

What is claimed as new, is:

1. In a closure for a container provided with a cap, the combination with a cover and a prong for piercing and retaining the cap during its removal, of means, engageable with the cap to hold it against the prong when the cover is removed, for securing the prong to the under surface of the cover.

2. In a closure for a container provided with a cap, the combination with a cover a portion of which is dished and a prong for piercing and retaining the cap during its removal, of means, adapted by reason of said dishing to engage the cap and hold it against the prong when the cover is removed, for securing the prong to the under surface of the dished portion of the cover.

3. A closure for a container provided with a cap, having, in combination, a cover provided with indicia, a pointer positioned on the cover in association with the indicia, at least one cap piercing and retaining prong positioned on the under surface of the cover, and means, adapted to engage the cap after it is pierced by the prong, for securing the pointer and the prong to the cover.

4. A closure for a container provided with a cap, having, in combination, a cover provided with indicia, a pointer positioned on the cover in association with the indicia, at least one cap piercing and retaining prong positioned on the under surface of the cover, and means, adapted to engage the cap after it is pierced by the prong,

for securing the pointer movably to the cover and for securing the prong fast to the cover.

5. A closure for a container provided with a cap, having, in combination, a cover, a pointer rotatably secured to the cover, and at least one 5 cap piercing and retaining prong secured to the cover for removing the cap when the cover is removed from the container, said prong comprising a downwardly bent portion, a pointed end, and a body portion located intermediate the bent portion and the pointed end and lying in a plane substantially parallel with that of the top of the cover.

6. A closure for a container provided with a cap, having, in combination, a cover, a pointer positioned on the cover, a plate positioned on the under surface of the cover and provided with an integral cap piercing and retaining prong comprising a downwardly bent portion, a pointed end, and a body portion located intermediate the bent portion and the pointed end and lying in a. plane substantially parallel with that of the plate, and means, adapted to engage the cap after it is pierced by the prong, for securing the pointer and the plate to the cover.

7. In a. closure for a container provided with a cap, the combination with a cover, of a substantially arcuate prong secured to the cover for piercing and retaining the cap during its removal, said prong comprising a downwardly bent portion, a downwardly pointed end, and a body portion intermediate the bent portion and the pointed end and lying in a plane substantially parallel with the top of the cover.

8. In a closure for a container provided with a cap, the combination with a cover, of a substantially arcuate prong secured to the cover for piercing and retaining the cap during its removal, said prong comprising a downwardly bent portion, a downwardly pointed end, and a body portion intermediate the bent portion and the pointed end and lying in a plane substantially parallel with the cap when the cover is placed on the container in position for cap removal.

ADOLPH SIMEONE. 

